276 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



fluid is thus noticed : " It is by no means homogeneous, 

 and numerous corpuscles of very various and irregular 

 shape may be observed to float through it and be car- 

 ried about by its current. Some of these corpuscles 

 are, doubtless, spermatozoa ; others are of no definite 

 shape, and look like minute portions of the tissues 

 separated by laceration. If it be admitted, as I think 

 it must be, that the perigastric fluid consists mainly of 

 water which has obtained entrance from without, it 

 then corresponds to a true aquiferous system subser- 

 vient to a respiratory function. But it also, without 

 doubt, receives certain products of digestion, which had 

 transuded through the walls of the alimentary canal ; it 

 thus connects itself with the digestive system. It is, 

 moreover, the only representative of a sanguiferous cir- 

 culation, for in the Polyzoa there is certainly no trace 

 of a heart, nor can anything referable to a true vascular 

 system be detected.''* 



Eeturning to the fluid in the cavity of the Anemones, 

 we see the necessity of a cultivated caution in the 

 acceptance of statements in matters so comj^lex as those 

 of Biology. The respect justly due to Dr Williams as 

 an investigator, has caused his views respecting the 

 " blood series " to be accepted without verification. As 

 I make it a rule to verify every one's statements, when 

 they fall within my own investigations — believing Tvith 

 Harvey " how unsafe and degenerate a thing it is to be 

 tutored by other men's commentaries, without making 



* Allmann : Monograjih of Ihe Fresh-ioater Polyzoa. Published by 

 the Ray Society, p. 23. 



